Living roof tops Sciences Academy plan

Golden Gate Park could get four acres of greenery added
to it in the most unlikely location: atop a new home for the
California Academy of Sciences.

The environmentally friendly roof -- complete with
undulating contours meant to evoke San Francisco's fabled
topography -- is the most startling element of the design
being disclosed today as the academy begins a drive to build
a new $220 million facility to replace its current home on
the south edge of the park's Music Concourse.

The academy, one of the nation's leading natural history
museums and research centers, has been in Golden Gate Park
since 1916. It has sought a new home for years, both because
of a desire for a more efficient facility and because the
maze of 12 connected structures does not meet modern seismic
codes or accessibility requirements.

If San Francisco officials approve the plan, the academy
would close in early 2004 and open its new complex in 2008.
In between, the 250 staff members and 18 million research
specimens -- ranging from microscopic plants to fish stored
in jars -- would move to a temporary location.

The architect for the project is Renzo Piano of Italy. He
is a past recipient of the Pritzker Prize, architecture's
equivalent of the Nobel, and among the handful of
international architects courted by image-conscious
institutions. His current projects range from an expansion
of the Art Institute of Chicago to a 1,000-foot-high
skyscraper in London.

Academy officials say the design's villagelike cluster of
spaces under a contoured roof took shape in two years of
discussions.

"We didn't seek an architect's particular 'look.' We
wanted someone who would be responsive to our needs," said
executive director Dr. Patrick Kociolek, explaining the
desire to go with Piano rather than one of his flashier
peers. "We wanted a building that is appropriate and blends
in."

The project would be larger and costlier than the new
M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, which will start construction
later this year across the concourse. But academy officials
-- eager to avoid the type of controversy spawned by the de
Young design's 16-story tower -- stress their attempts to
make the new facility settle into place as unobtrusively as
possible.

So-called green roofs are unusual in the United States
but very much a part of the modern European landscape. The
environmental benefits are many: Such roofs can reduce a
building's energy needs, slow the runoff of water during
storms, and reduce nearby temperatures.

The aim here is also aesthetic. Piano, who will be in San
Francisco today to present the design, spoke last year of
wanting to make the new building "almost a piece of the
park."

His most ambitious hopes proved unsuccessful, such as
folding the academy directly into nearby berms. Instead, the
idea is to "drape" the roof over a wide rectangular building
that needs to swell up from 40 to 65 feet at two points to
cover a rebuilt Morrison Planetarium and a new rain forest
exhibit.

Rather than be content with giving the academy its own
twin peaks, Piano then added other undulations of varying
heights to try to tie the roofscape into the hilly city
terrain.

Academy officials stress that the current images showing
steep green mounds are not final. The plant selection and
precise elevations are still being refined.

"For me, these are natural forms, not hard-edged,"
Kociolek said. "How many bumps there will be? That hasn't
been figured out yet."

The design is now at a "schematic" phase, which means the
specifics are in flux but enough is in place to start the
environmental impact studies. Piano's firm is working with
Gordon H. Chong and Partners of San Francisco.

In essence, a group of buildings will be grouped under
the sinuous roof. At each corner of the complex will be a
two-story structure, housing such things as the academy's
research area, classrooms and gift shop. The cross-shaped
open area between those structures will have 35-foot
ceilings and glass walls to the outside. This area will be
reserved for public exhibits, including a new 225,000-gallon
Philippine coral reef habitat.

At the center of the cross would be a courtyard framed by
circular structures containing the planetarium and rain
forest.

Only one of the 12 buildings that now house the academy
would be restored -- Africa Hall, known to generations of
schoolchildren because of its wildlife dioramas. But the
hall's classical stone facade would be duplicated in one of
the corner buildings, and the columns that now form the
entrance to Steinhart Aquarium would probably be
rebuilt.

Before anything gets built, of course, the plan must be
approved by City Hall, a process the academy hopes will be
finished in one year. Voters already have approved $115
million for the project in two bond measures -- a sign, say
hopeful academy officials, that public support will break
their way.

The overall cost of the project -- which includes a
general endowment, interim storage and creating the exhibits
-- is $370 million. Besides the city money and past fund
raising, the academy will undertake a $150 million capital
campaign.

Aesthetics aside, Kociolek said, he is most excited about
the chance to modernize a complex cobbled together over 70
years.

"This building is a response to a whole variety of needs:
seismic, leaky roofs, the need to unify our intellectual
resources," Kociolek said. "Science is a much more
collaborative process today."